Live Review: Leon Bridges, Noah Kahan

Our support act this evening Noah Kahan is backed by a three-piece, channels Passenger and sometimes the jaunty drumming calls to mind Avicii's Wake Me Up (see: False Confidence). There's a lot of affectation to Kahan's vocal, but although his personality comes across as earnest within song, he's hilarious on the banter. "Who’s excited about seeing Leon Bridges tonight?” Kahan inquires before our cheers are met by his cheeky quip, “Well, here’s another one of my songs.” The set highlight is a song about a deceased friend and when Kahan gazes skyward during this one we know he feels his dearly missed mate's presence in the house. We definitely recognise Hurt Somebody and this young artist is certainly going places. Kahan has everything going for him, but it would be great to see more chemistry between the players on stage.

Leon Bridges' exemplary backing band take the stage and form a half-circle configuration to allow maximum dancing room for their band leader. They supply a low-key intro and then Bridges explodes onto the stage dressed as Jamiroquai (aka The Twat In The Hat). Wearing what appear to be black tracky dacks with gold stripes down the side seams, black crushed velour jacket and matching black crushed velour bucket hat, Bridges shocks us with his choice of threads. His usual suave, effortless movement around the stage is absent as well; it's as if this show has been choreographed to the nth degree and Bridges still needs to fully concentrate and count in his head to execute it all. 

His voice is sublime - demonstrated early on during If It Feels Good (Then It Must Be) - and we're fine with his new John Legend-esque sound, but this is a strangely detached performance that fails to lure us to our feet. After remarking a couple of songs in the start of his set must be too weird for Melbourne (what? That's a bit snarky and many baffled looks are exchanged within the audience), Bridges offers up Better Man. A couple of people sway in their seats, but none feel compelled to dance just yet. 

When Bridges performs songs from Coming Home while decked out in this clobber it feels anachronistic. Perhaps his material could be delivered in two sections and separated by a costume change? We miss the dapper Bridges, especially since he considers Gene Kelly a style icon. There's a glorious cello solo (during which Bridges has more than enough time to squeeze in a costume change) and an artist whose golden pipes make him sound related to Stevie Wonder doesn’t require that gold-sequinned mic stand.

We're certainly not about stunting an artist's creative growth or limiting the musical genres they explore - not at all - but something about this show feels inauthentic. We've never heard Bridges request that we “make some noise” before but he does so in abundance this evening, culminating in the bizarre, "If you love yourself please make noise".

Bridges instructs us to stand up before one song, which we do and then at this song's conclusion he claims, "That’s all I wanted, just the one song,” before launching into the glorious Lisa Sawyer, which one would groove along to at best. She's been lost upstage, but when Brittni Jessie joins Bridges down front in a spectacular black shimmering onesie we're awestruck by her syrupy vocal tone and divine stage presence. 

"Make some noise! You want some of this?” Bridges shouts. He then tries to teach us a relatively complex moving dance sequence, incorporating various isolations, which would be impossible to replicate in any setting regardless of seating arrangement. We then score a popified rendition of Brown Skin Girl. Even Smooth Sailin' comes off as clunky, but receives the best audience response of the night and inspires Bridges to acknowledge, "That was good! That was good!” 


There’s banging on the backs of seats for an encore and Bridges returns to the stage with Jessie plus keyboardist. They gently present his gospel song River and it's an understated, minimal set highlight delivered with plenty of heart. After this song, a pair of ladies in the back stalls yell out, “We love you, Brittni!" She hears it, humbly bows and we all agree Jessie should’ve been upfront - even if off to one side - all night.


It's impossible not to compare this show to Bridges' outstanding 2016 gig at Forum Theatre (which this scribe reviewed and raved about) and while we definitely arrived tonight expecting to appreciate the full range of Bridges' artistry, we ultimately leave feeling disappointed.